The state intends to allocate 86 million hryvnia for the reconstruction and preparation of the Odessa Sports Palace for the Youth World Hockey Championship.

As Oksana Goncharuk, chairwoman of the planning, budget and finance commission told at the hardware meeting of the Odessa City Council, a more complete reconstruction of the Sports Palace is needed for the championship (the previous one was held in 2016. - Ed.) And improvement of the adjacent territory. First of all, it is necessary to strengthen the bowl of the ice rink, but the money for work from the regional budget has not yet been allocated.

"The budget commission of the Odessa regional council met on Thursday and decided to ask the regional state administration to allocate 1 million UAH for the development of design estimates and the beginning of repairs in the Sports Palace. At the meeting of the commission it was decided to finance in two stages. In this case, the first million UAH will be removed from one of the facilities, the work on which has already begun. After the development of design estimates, a tender will be announced for the determination of the repair contractor. At the next session of the regional council, in August, it is planned to resolve the issue of allocating the second part of the required amount - due to overfulfilment of the revenue side of the regional budget, "said the deputy of the regional council, the chairman of the budget commission, and the official of the mayor's office of Odessa (director of the municipal department of administrative services ) Evgenia Abramova.

In turn, Mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov said that the amount of work to be big and if you allocate money in August, you can not finish the preparation.

"If we want to miss this championship, then we'll blink. Now, when there is no ice there, we need to strengthen the bowl of the ice rink, for this right now it is necessary to allocate 1-1.5 million UAH. Then do the rest, but if there is no ice, then nothing will happen, "he commented..

Recall, the tournament will be held from 14 to 20 April 2018. For Odessa this will be the first official ice hockey competition in history.

In the struggle for the right to hold this tournament, Odessa was ahead of the Austrian St. Pelten and the hockey capital of Italy - Asiago.

The main arena will be the Odessa Sports Palace. In the coming year it should be modernized to meet the standards of international competitions.

With funding will also help the regional authorities.